Watchcase center



March 15 1927.

N. GREENBERG WATCHCASE CENTER Filed April 24, 1925 INVE TOR MW BY ATTORNEY Patented Mar. 15, 1927.

NATHAN GREETr-IBERG, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

WATGHCASE CENTER.

Application filed April 24, 1925. Serial No. 25,492.

hIy present invention relates generally to a wrist watch case and more particularly to the construction of a center piece thereof.

hilodern wrist watch cases are generally made of three parts, namely a center part within which the worlis are received and by which they are carried, a top bezel part in which is to be received the watch crystal, and the back cover or closure member. The top bezel and the back closure members are carried from opposite sides of the watch case center part in any desired manner as by being hinged thereto or by being sprung thereon.

This center part of the case is' made of the shape which it is desire'd the watch shall have, and is generally provided on its exterior surface or side wall with a ridge or platform extending outwardly therefrom and completely thereabont and positioned midway the top and bottom thereot so as to provide boulders or seats on which the top bezel member and the bottom closure may seat so as to completely enclose the works and: make the case dustproot.

here I have attempted to form this center piece by a casting process, I- have found that not o nly does the casting have to be machined but that even then it is diihcult to get a well finished product. \Vhere, on the other hand, I have attempted to form the center part out of one integral member by a stamping operation, I have found that this is diilicult and commercially almostimpossible because of the fact thatmetal such as white gold, which is the metal generally employed, is very difficult to be operated upon by astampingor' shaping process because of the tt'act that metal permits of very little dis tortion or bendingwithout breakage.-

Where, on the other'hand, I have attempted to eliminate as far as possible a sha'ping'operat'io n to form this ridge, by associating a ring or annulus or less height and of larger diameter with a second ringof greater height and of smaller diameter with the dimensions of the ring-s such that the larger diametered ring can be secured to the outer surface of the smaller diametered annulus by soldering or otherwise so as to cause it to be positioned on the outside and intermediate the top and bottom of said smaller diametered ring, thus in fact, forming the desired central exterior anchorage, I have found that thisproduced a rather weak union because of the fact that the association of the two is dependent to a large extent upon the soldering and this is not generally suflicie'nt to permit of the association therewith of the other two parts of the case.

TVhere, on the other hand, I have attempted to form this center part with a ridge thereon by springing together or otherwise securing two members, upon the adjacent parts of each oi? which was formed part oi the outer ridge, I have found that this presented a line or union between the two ridge parts which was intermediate the outer. surface of the center of the ridge, and, therefore had to be processed specially so as to avoid this union to be too apparent. In addition, this construction presents other objections which will be understandable, to those engaged in manufacturing wrist watches, one of which is the amount of metal necessary.

The most important objects of my inven-tion are :the provision ofa centerpiece made of two parts and in which the ridge is made integral with one of the parts the provision of a center piece for a watch case made up of two parts in which one part is in the form of an uushouldered ring; the

provision of a center piece made o'f t-wo parts, one of which is in the form of an annulus or ring, with the upper half of greater width than the lower half; the provision of a center part made of two stampings, one of which is in the form of an annulus 0t uu'i form widththroughout its height; and the provision generally of a new and improved center part for a watch case and of a method for its production.

I attain these objects by making my center part oi? two metal stampings which are given the form which it is desired that the watch shall have and so stam'p' one of the members that the other seats and hosts partly therewithin; the members being so dimensioned that the inner surta'ce of one of the nested members is in the same plane as and form substantially a continuation of part oi the inner surface oi' the other member, with the overlapping portion of the outer member 0t greater exterior diameter than the rest of said member, and with the nested member extending beyond said overlapping portion, so that said overlapping portion forms the center ridge on the center part of the watch case,-

For the attainment of these objects and such other objects as may hereinafter appear or be pointed out, I have illustrated one embodiment of my invention in the drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of my center piece fully assembled and ready to have the other parts of the case associated therewith;

Fig. 2 is a cross sect-ion taken transversely through Fig. 1.

Before proceeding to describe my invention, I will premise that center pieces of this character are generally made of metal, such as white gold, which when used for this purpose is generally of a character as to permit of shaping in a moulding or stamping operation only to a limited extent. The metal, due to its springy character, can not be sharply bent to any great extent without breaking, and for this purpose, as will be understood when the specification is read, one of the important objects of my'invem tion has been to form a center piece having the ridge on its exterior of the metalof this character by the employment of a minimum amount of metal shaped by a stamping operation, and this I accomplish by forming it of two pieces so shaped that a minimum amount of bending is required and, upon v viewing Fig. 2 of the drawings, it will be observed that in accordance with my invention, I construct this center piece of 'two stampings l0 and 11 each having its side or exterior face of the shape which it is desired the exterior of the watch shall have.

/Vhile both stampings are of the same thickness and present upstanding walls 12 and 13 which are symmetrical and of the same dimensions so that the two walls can be assembled end to end so as to form continuations of each other, stamping 10 has the upper half 14: of its upstanding wall expanded 0r widened by substantially the thickness'of said wall so as to present the interior shoulder 15 and exterior shoulders 16 and 17 all for purposes that will shortly appear. As a result of all of this, the interior shoulder or seat will be such as to receive the bottom of the member 11 thereon with the outer surface or wall of said member in contact with the inner surface of the widened part 14- of the wall of the lower member.

The parts 10 and 11 are of the same height and as the seat or shoulder 15 is formed substantially midway of the height of the wall of the member 10,'it will be understood that when the member 11 is fully nested within the member lOand 011 its seat 15, that it will extend upwardly beyond the shoulder 17 for substantially the same distance that the wall 12 extends below the shoulder or seat 16. In other words, by the arrangement described, I thus attain a center part of two pieces which has a center ridge midway thereabout and which presents the two shoulders or seats 16 and 17 upon which the V the form of bezeled top part and the end closure part of the watch case can seat.

By making the stampings sufficiently accurate, the part 11 which as stated is made of spring metal can be caused to have a spring snap engagement to its nested portion on to its seat 15. To maintain the two in such fixed association against separation, I may use a thin film of solder therebetween and for maximum binding action with a minimum of solder, I prefer to heat the two members of the center part during the soldering operation.

As has already been stated, the center part of the case receives the watch movement or works and to retain these in position, I provided the members 10 and 11 with the inwardly extending flanges 20 and 21 so arranged that when these two members are assembled, these flanges are presented on the upper and lower faces thereof as shown 1n Fig. 1. The watch movement is sprung past one of these flanges into position between the two, which is permitted by the fact that these stampings are made of spring metal.

It will be observed upon viewing Fig. 1 that flanges 20 and 21 are cut so as to present an oval border or edge 22 to conform to the similarly shaped movement to be received therein. In this manner, I can make the shape and dimensions of the center piece independent of the shape and dimensions of the watch movement or works. 7 7

It will therefore be understood that I provide the desired center part of the stampings in which one part is in the form of an annulus having no bends except that to form atop flange and the other in the form of an annulus having only the bend to form the shoulder 15 and that to form the bottom flange. Furthermore, not only do I in, this manner obtain a more satisfactory center part for a watch case, but I attain this with the use of less metal and therefore at less" cost.

Having described my invention and illustrated its use what I claim and desire to 7 cover by Letters Patent is p 1. A watch case center comprising two members adapted to be assembled in overlapping relationship, said members being in sheet metal annuli, one of said members being widened intermediate its edges for a distance equal to the thickness of a wall of the annulus so as to form a shoulder on its inner surface and an oppositely directed shoulder on its outer surface.

2. A watch case center comprising two' members of the same height andthickness adapted to be assembled in overlapping relationship, said members being in the form of sheet metal annuli, one of the members being widened intermediate its edges for a distance equal to the thickness of a wall of the annulus so as to form a shoulder on its inner surface and an oppositely directed shoulder on its outer surface, the other memher being adapted to be seated on the said inner shoulder, the overlapping portion forming a center ridge exterior-1y and intermediate of the edges of the assembly.

3. A center section for watches embodying afemale member, the periphery of which is stepped to provide a seat and abutment, and a male member extending partially into the female member to form a second seat, the free edge of the female member consituting a second abutment, and said seats and abutments serving to cooperate with covers aclapted to be associated with the center section.

4. A center section for watches embodying a female member in the form of a stamped metallic shell, the peripheral portion of which is stepped to provide an exterior shoulder and abutment and an interior shoulder, a male member extending into the female member to bear against the interior abutment and extending sufiiciently beyond the edge of the female member to form a second exterior seat, the adjacent free edge of the female member constituting a second exterior abutment whereby covers are adapted to cooperate with the exterior seats and abut-merits.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto signed my name.

NATHAN GREENBERG. 

